I split off a nuc last Wednesday evening. The bees had 2 frames of mostly capped brood and a frame of honey (there was also some larva and eggs in some cells?). On Thursday night I installed a queen in a cage with candy and found she was released today and walking on the frames...just fine. Now, I saw what appeared to be some queen cells on the frames, but I wasn't sure becasue they were not large and pronounced like a peanut, but they were 3-4 times taller than a drone cell and drooping down, so they may have been queen cells. My questions is: since they appear to have accepted the new queen and she is walking around the frames without any issues...will she...or the bees get rid of those potential queen cells, or do I need to do that? I have never seen an actual queen cell and I didn't want to agitate the bees tearing something out, if they will deal with it on their own.-Mike

anytime you requeen a hive and want the queen you bought to head up that hive you should look for and remove queen cells (this is the only time I say remove queen cells), if not them they will replace the queen you bought with a queen they raised under emergency conditions, not watching for cells when introducing new queens is why most say queens are superceded soon after installing. you should check for and remove cells for about 2 weeks after introduction of new queen.

« Last Edit: June 09, 2009, 09:54:02 AM by TwT »

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Thanks for the info, I will remove the cells tonight...but I am just curious...is the concern that the bees would side with a newly hatched queen and kill the installed queen, or is it the chance that a virgin would hatch and kill the queen?

It seems like queen that was installed would be able to handle herself and go over and dispatch her rivals, but maybe she is not as aggressive and agile after she starts laying.

some times the newly installed queen will kill the cells herself but seems most dont, most times its hard to tell what happened because the mated queen will just be missing, some times I have heard of the bought queen being found dead on the landing board and a few times I heard they would cast a small swarm, I have never had the problem because I have always checked for and removed cells when introducing a bought queen in a hive or split.

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THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 YEARS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!

Never be afraid to try something new. Amateurs built the ark, Professionals built the Titanic